Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Kiss a Handyman Today- Making Spare Keys from Coat Hangers

Our daughters have been getting sass-saaaay, and these sistas are trying to lock us outta their biz already. Say whaaaa?!?

Can't be having that around here, no siree.

We have french handles on all of our doors, and we keep the standard "keys" to unlock them on top of the molding on each frame.

To unlock, place spare "key" in the hole and turn.

But as doors have been slammed and time has passed, it seems that some of these "keys" have disappeared.

My youngest peanut locked herself in her sister's room in a split second the other day and didn't know how to unlock the door from the inside. Immediately, I reached for the key above the door and found that it was GONE!

I raced downstairs to grab the other spare key from the downstairs bedroom to get that locked door opened. Knowing that, in a situation like this, every second counts, I knew I couldn't let this happen again. Mama needs more keys!

What to do? MY immediate solution was to purchase more. I mean...what else was I gonna do? No sooner had I found these on Amazon, my fella came in and stopped me in my tracks.

He scolded me for not just asking him to go MAKE some in the basement.

"Um...come again?"

Only my fella, right?

I challenged him.

"If you can seriously just go MAKE me new door keys right now, I'm blogging about it. Prove it."

So he did.

And I got a lesson.

Or two.

*****

HOW IT'S DONE

1. Grab a wire coat hanger. Use bolt cutters to snip the hanger near the neck so that you can utilize the entire wire to make multiple keys.

Snip coat hanger

2. Ideally using a vice, hammer to flatten the end of the wire. Reference your sample key to determine appropriate width.

Flatten straight end

3. With needle-nose pliers, simply grab and bend hook at one end, as you'd see on a standard key. This will prevent it from rolling off your door frame and makes it easier to manipulate when in use.

Bend out your hooked end

4. With bolt cutters, snip wire at the end of your hook. Repeat process with remaining wire, if desired.

And there you have it. I had five new keys on the spot, made from that coat hanger. And yes, we tested each one—worked better than the original!

Geezoo.
Homeboy really pulled it off. Gotta hand it to him.

My favorite part was how he didn't want me to post this because he assumed EVERYONE would think to do this immediately.

Well, maybe now they will.
Ain't that the coolest?!?
No more problem. No more worries!

5 new keys made from coat hanger on the left, original key in gold, another spare on the end made from standard wire

This trick should work on most standard bedroom/bathroom locks, even if the knobs are round instead of french handles.

If you try it out and have success, comment or link back to this post. I know one dude who will really get a charge out of that.